William Klein of Northwestern University is publishing a study that shows that insulin appears to shield the brain from toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. The study found that the GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, which increases sensitivity to insulin, appears to enhance this protective effect.
"In Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas isn't making insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, your tissues are insensitive to insulin because of problems in the insulin receptor. Type 3 is where that insulin receptor problem is localized in the brain," Klein said in a telephone interview.
"As you get older, some individuals start to have less effective insulin signaling, including in the brain," he said, making the brain more vulnerable to toxins that cause Alzheimer's disease.
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